


A marriage proposal, and what follows

by tetsubinatu



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: F/M, Het and Slash, M/M, Multi, Multiple Partners, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-08
Updated: 2010-11-08
Packaged: 2017-10-13 03:09:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/132178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tetsubinatu/pseuds/tetsubinatu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur asks Gwen to be his queen, but he has a caveat: Merlin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A marriage proposal and what follows

**Author's Note:**

> First posted as commentfic at [kinkme_merlin #4](http://community.livejournal.com/kinkme_merlin/4920.html?thread=2937400#t2937400) for the prompt: Arthur/Gwen/Merlin, Gwen in the middle

**Prologue**

"It's asking a lot, I know," Arthur said, his face averted. The woods around them were quiet, no-one for miles.

Gwen watched the ants running up the side of the beech tree on her left, staggering under the weight of their tiny little loads. "No," she said. "I understand. If Morgana were here..."

Both of them fell silent. It hurts, no less now than two years ago when she left, that Morgana left without a word to either of them. She'd left a note for Merlin, asking him to take care of them, but nothing else.

"I love him, Gwen," Arthur said. His voice was low and unsure. "I never meant to love him, but he loves me back. I could have loved you - I almost did once." He threw a stick across the clearing.

"I suppose I still do, but not..."

"Not the way you love Merlin," she said steadfastly.

Arthur's lips tightened. He gave a quick, decisive nod.

"We thought Lancelot would come for you."

So had she. She had waited a long time, listened to travellers' tales from every corner of Albion and beyond. He had last been heard of in Rome, and that was over a year ago.

Morgana, Lancelot. It was apparently her destiny to love those who could give her nothing but pretty words before making a quick escape in the dark.

And Arthur, of course. And Merlin. She loved them both, too. Not with the quick passion that she had lavished on the other two, but with the steady love of friendship, trust and the confidence that they _would not desert her_ when life turned cruel.

"You would want him to share our bed?" she asked.

His quick intake of breath said that he had not meant that at all.

"I... what?" His sweet face - sweet to her, whatever ramblings about 'manly beauty' she heard from noble maidens and besotted knights - was utterly astonished.

"All three of us, together," she said, trying not to laugh. Clearly he had envisaged some kind of division of time between them both, or possibly sharing the bed of one of them and making occasional visits to the other. Not if she had anything to say, which at this point she certainly did.

"I... " he took a deep breath and moved his knee across awkwardly in an attempt at concealment of his physical reaction to her suggestion. "I'd have to ask Merlin?"

She smiled placidly and moved her hand up to his cheek. "It's a good idea, Arthur. I'll marry you and bear your children and be your queen. I'll share you with Merlin, and you can share me with Merlin. It will work."

Arthur was clearly worrying about what Merlin would say. She kissed him quickly, a promise for the future, and stood up. In the distance she could see Camelot through the trees.

"What did he say about this?" she asked the King at her feet.

Arthur rubbed his jaw in a gesture he had had since childhood. "He thinks I should give him up."

"Never," she said. Another promise. "You must never give him up."

Arthur looked at her as he had not looked at her in a long time, as if she were a miracle made tangible. "Gwen," he said, and his eyes were suspiciously shiny. "Gwen, I do love you, so much!"

Together they made their way back to the castle, back to Merlin.

 

*** * 1 * ***

 

After the long day, the pomp and ceremony with Arthur resplendent in scarlet silk and velvet and Merlin awkward in blue velveteen robes as his attendant, Gwen wanted to scream. Her new 'handmaiden', a rather sweet member of the minor gentry chosen by Gwen for her complete lack of malice or curiosity, at last unlaced Gwen's sumptuous gown and replaced it with an equally sumptuous, but corset-free nightgown so that Gwen could finally breathe with her whole ribcage. She stood at the window excercising that privilege with utmost relief.

A knock at the second door connecting the Royal Chambers could only be her new husband. "Come in!" she called, turning with a smile. Arthur was in his shirt and breeches, but Merlin had shed only his outermost layer, the fur-trimmed robe that he had complained about all day.

"I really shouldn't be here," he said, trying not to look at Gwen's deshabille, as if it were showing a thing he couldn't see any day of the week.

Gwen rolled her eyes at Arthur, who rolled his own back with gusto. "You hold him and I'll unlace him," she smirked. Merlin yelped, but Arthur was laughing as he put one arm around Merlin to hold him in place so that Gwen could move her swift, accustomed hands to unlace him from his court attire. When he was down to his shirt and unlaced jacket Arthur let him go.

Merlin was laughing, too, at last. "It's your wedding night," he protested, but Gwen was so happy to see the gloom lifted from his face, after the strain of the last few weeks, that she didn't bother with the same tired arguments but simply leaned up to kiss him.

"I got two for one," she said happily. "And since it's _my_ wedding night I should get what I want."

Merlin looked bemused. Clearly he _still_ didn't understand at all.

"Merlin, will you please _listen_ to me and believe that I know what I'm saying? I can't believe that _Arthur_ was so easy to convince and _you_ are being so very difficult!

"I love you. I love Arthur. Arthur loves you, and he loves me a little too - although not as much as he loves you. You love Arthur. Can't you love _me_ too, just a little? I thought you did."

Merlin's face crumpled. "Gwen..." he said, swallowing hard. He looked at Arthur, who was standing like a statue of guilt personified beside him.

"You've been my best friend since my first day in the stocks," he said sincerely. "Of course I love you, Gwen. But you shouldn't have to share..."

She put a finger over his mouth. "Merlin my darling, I _want_ to share. I am looking _forward_ to sharing! If you had any idea of the things I think of when I'm tucked up alone in bed at night, you would have absolutely no doubt about that...

"Although you might still run away!" she added with a cheeky grin.

Merlin blinked, and she used the moment to push his jacket from his shoulders and slip her hands under his shirt. She rested a curly head against his chest, listening to his heart beating and waited. "You did say that you would share. Please, Merlin?"

His heartbeat under her cheek was a little fast, but it only took a moment before his arms came around her. "Of course, Gwen," he said, and from the gentleness in his tone she knew that he finally understood.

Slice it any way you liked, there would be three in this marriage. There _had_ to be three in the bed. Doing this any other way would have been a disaster waiting to happen.

 

*** * 2 * ***

 

They'd moved over to the bed when Arthur placed his hands on the nape of her neck and asked "Have you done this before?"

She shook her head and forced the words she had known that she must tell him, sooner or later, out of her throat. "Not with a man."

"Morgana?" Merlin asked gently, his hand resting lightly on her knee.

She nodded, the humiliation of finding that Morgana had fled without a word to her rushing back with the admission. Merlin leaned in to kiss her forehead. "I'm so sorry - I wish I'd known."

She shrugged, unable to force any words from her throat. Arthur's hands on her shoulders had frozen, and she twisted herself around, suddenly fearful that he felt tricked by this late revelation.

He was staring at the green silk hangings of her bed, and then he turned to look at her with deep and furious understanding. "She _left you_? Without so much as a _note_? I should have hunted her down and dragged her back to justice!"

Her pain melted at the sight of his righteous fury. "She probably thought she was protecting me," she said.

His eyes flashed,"She should have offered you the choice."

She nodded. It had taken her years to reconcile herself to Morgana's decision.

"You're ours now," Merlin said. His smile was beautiful as he leaned in to kiss her with wide generous lips which tasted nothing like Morgana's sweet wine and chamomile, felt nothing like Morgana's focussed goal-oriented probing.

Merlin tasted of the berry pies and raisin sweetmeats which had been served at the feast. He seemed to be quite happy to explore her mouth slowly, to examine it from every angle and Gwen allowed herself to be lulled into a sensual haze. Arthur must have lost patience with their preoccupation because he began to drop small kisses on her nape, trailing them up to her ear and then down around her neck to her shoulder and collarbone. His hands were busy on the ties of her nightgown, just three flimsy bows for the ease of access a new husband would expect. The nightgown sagged and fell open.

Gwen gasped at little as it fell away, and felt Arthur chuckle into her shoulder as his hands tugged the gown open to reveal more of her to him.

"Beautiful Gwen," he murmured, tugging her to lie down on the bed beside him. Merlin followed her down, lying on her other side and working with Arthur to peel the gown from her until she lay naked to their view.

"No fair," she gasped. "You're still dressed."

The men looked at each other and then back at her before Merlin shed his shirt and Arthur began to pull down his breeches.

"Look at that arse," Merlin fake-whispered to her. "Best arse in Camelot!"

Arthur wiggled it at them before turning around to roll his eyes and remove his shirt. Gwen giggled, which only encouraged Arthur to strike several more manly and heroic poses to Merlin's increasingly disrespectful commentary.

"What do you do when you're alone?" she was emboldened to ask.

Merlin bit gently into her shoulder. Morgana had nipped her sometimes, but never so gently. "Sometimes we use our mouths," he said idly. Arthur leaned across her to lick at Merlin's cock lasciviously and Gwen felt a surge of desire.

"Sometimes we use our hands," Arthur added, taking one of her small hands in his large one and placing it around his cock. Leaving it there, he pumped it up and down several times, his eyes fluttering closed at her touch.

She'd never touched one before. It felt like soft suede over damascene steel. Fascinating.

"Sometimes we just rub against each other," Merlin said, rolling so that his cock was wedged between his body and her hip, then setting up a slow rocking rhythm against her.

"Or between the thighs," Arthur added. His hand let hers go, and she kept the friction going on his cock, exactly as he had shown her. His head rolled back, his hands clenching into fists at her precise echoing of his actions.

"Or we fuck," Merlin said. He was breathing heavily, but he stopped rocking and moved to kneel between her thighs. "Did Morgana do this?" he asked, bending to the damp folds between her thighs.

"Ye...es," she said, her breath catching in her throat as he inhaled the scent at its source, then gently licked at the slit just visible through her curls. His tongue probed deeper and flattened, and she was startled when Arthur groaned. Her hand had tightened unconsciously on him as Merlin had licked her.

"Sorry!" she said, feeling clumsy and ridiculous as she snatched her hand away but he just smiled at her with slightly glazed eyes.

"Does any of that appeal to you, my queen?" he asked, and she nodded. His hand caressed her cheek possessively and then slid over to outline her lips, finding them slightly parted. He watched curiously as she gave herself over to the pleasure of Merlin's tongue, closing her eyes and raising her hands to clutch at the headboard.

Little moans seemed to force themselves out of her throat, and she opened her eyes again to check what he was doing. He was still watching her, smiling, and as she looked at him, he began to caress her breasts.

"I know how Solomon felt," he said softly - to himself, she thought. "Thou art beautiful." His lips descended to her nipples and she whimpered at the double assault on her senses. As the pleasure washed over her and she arched into Merlin's firm grasp on her hips she cried out.

"Oh! Please!"

"Can I?" Arthur asked, and she could barely speak to give consent.

"Yes! Please, Arthur! Please!"

He slid inside her, where only Morgana's fingers had ever been. The feeling was so _different_. It was large and blunt and it was just what she needed, to fill her, to push against in her rapture.

She remembered to open her eyes, to watch him as he strained inside her. He was sweaty and solemn until his face twisted as he spent himself within her.

He lay, sated, on top of her for a long moment before she remembered Merlin. He was lying beside her, his face wet with her dampness, and his hand on his own cock.

"Let me," she said. Arthur rolled off and she climbed on top of Merlin, but he put his hands so that she could not guide him inside her.

"You have to give Arthur an heir," he said, and it was no time to argue so she just slid down a little further and bent to lick his cock as Arthur had done. He took her hand and placed it so that it gripped the base of his cock firmly, then moved it swiftly up and down - far faster than Arthur had shown her before.

"Could you... suck it?" he asked tentatively, and she slid her mouth over the end and sucked hard as she moved her hand. He groaned and she found that she had to anchor his hips with her body, as he had held hers for her. Arthur was kissing him as he came, and she dropped him in shock, spitting out his seed.

"Sorry," he said after a minute, still breathless. "I should have warned you."

"I blame Arthur entirely," she said, wrinkling her nose affectionately and wiping her face on the sheet before sliding up the bed to cuddle up to them both.

The room smelled of sweaty men, the bed was sticky and wrinkled and Arthur and Merlin were bickering quietly over who should have warned Gwen.

Her boys. Her men.

This was going to be a heck of a lot of fun.


	2. An heir of expectancy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This part was first posted as commentfic at [kinkme_merlin #3](http://community.livejournal.com/kinkme_merlin/2936.html?thread=1145976#t1145976) for the prompt: Arthur/Gwen/Merlin - Gwen is quite heavily pregnant and Arthur refuses to sleep with her until after the baby is born because he's afraid it will get hurt. Gwen and Merlin, however, continue to have sex and tease Arthur until he can no longer abstain from sharing their bed.

The day that they are sure that Gwen is pregnant is the first day that Merlin fucks Gwen. That night in bed she grins complicitly at Arthur, who strokes her face as she kneels up between them, and then she turns to Merlin.

She straddles Merlin's chest facing his cock and begins to lick it. That's not unusual as such, and he brings his hand up to finger her tenderly until he becomes too distracted and his hands brace on her hips, framing her gorgeous naked arse - too far away to bite, although he cranes his head and tries.

But instead of continuing she _turns around_ , grasps his cock and - before he even understands what she is doing - slides onto it. His mouth gasps an automatic reproval. They have an agreement! Arthur needs an heir... oh!

A wave of understanding fills his heart with joy. There is no need to deny themselves this. The heir is planted, and for the next few months they can do whatever they please.

She bites her lip, smiling down at him, lifting herself up and down and _clutching_ at him. Beside him Arthur is stroking his hair kissing him and murmuring words of love as Merlin chokes out some kind of nonsense and fills Gwen with his seed, sure now that none will take root.

The next few months are the best in bed that it has ever been for them, and it has always been pretty good. Gwen is eager and relaxed; duty is satisfied and there is nothing required in their bed but the pleasure of a loving body. In twos and threes they do pretty much anything they can think of.

One day Gwen confesses, almost whispering into Arthur's chest, that she has always wondered what it would be like to...

"To what, sweeting?"

"To," her hand comes up to cover her mouth. "To take you both atthesametime."

He puzzles for a moment over her exact meaning as she gathers enough nerve to continue, "One in front and one... like you do it."

Arthur gulps, rock hard in an instant. "How long have you wanted this, Guinevere?" he challenges her teasingly.

She buries her face in his chest hair and he has to lift her head up to hear her say, "Ever since I understood how you and Merlin fuck each other."

Arthur and Merlin exchange glances, and it is Merlin who asks, "Which of us do you want in front?"

She makes a gesture with her shoulder which says, 'Either. You choose.' so Merlin kisses along her spine until he reaches her sweet buttocks. He drives a wet, probing tongue between the top of her cheeks, not even close to her entrance, just teasing, and she squirms happily.

"We've been doing this a long time," he says to her, stroking the generous curves gently. "It's not so easy the first time. It might hurt."

She nods thoughtfully into Arthur's chest and they rearrange themselves a little, so that her weight is balanced evenly on Arthur and her knees are either side of him. Merlin coats his right hand fingers in oil and wets his left hand fingers, sliding them underneath her to find the folds he knows so well.

"Relax," he says softly. "If you feel uncomfortable, push out. It will open you up a bit, make it easier.

"Stop me if it hurts. Tell me if you want to stop completely."

She nods, but he waits until she says "All right" before he touches his index finger to the pucker of her arsehole.

She stiffens and then consciously relaxes, but as his finger enters her she lets out a little whine.

"Still want it?" Arthur asks in a low, loving tone. Gwen nods. Merlin takes his time, alternating between gentle frigging and stretching until she is so accustomed to the feeling that she has stopped tensing against it and accepts it as natural. Arthur is kissing her and talking to her in a low, intimate voice so that Merlin can only catch about half of the conversation.

As Arthur glances down at him Merlin nods.

"Ready to go, sweeting?" Arthur asks, and Gwen pushes herself up from his chest, wriggling her chest and back to get out the kinks. Merlin watches her back and buttocks sway and feels the arousal which had dampened a little spring back to full hardness.

"I'm narrower," he says to Arthur, and Arthur nods as if he had come to the same conclusion. In the arse narrow - even if longer - is easier than thick.

"Relax, my queen," Merlin says, and Gwen huffs as she always does when he calls her that in bed, but lets herself relax as Merlin slides his exhausted fingers out and without stopping at all slips his cock back into the space they leave.

Gwen gasps and tightens, and Merlin stops.

"That's so _odd_ ," she says incredulously. Merlin can only pant, hovering awkwardly half-in.

"Relax and let him in," Arthur says, stroking her shoulders as if she were a nervous mare.

"Oh, sorry," Gwen says, concentrating, and Merlin finds that the way is open for him to slide all the way to the root, burying himself deeper than he had imagined she could take so quickly. It feels so good - tight and not-Arthur but still love.

"Just a minute," Arthur says, his voice rough as he feels between his belly and Gwen's to position himself at her other entrance.

There is a moment where everyone wriggles until they are all positioned right, and Merlin feels Arthur sliding in and out of Gwen, feels his cock through the thin barrier of Gwen's skin.

They are together. He is inside Gwen and he is sliding against Arthur _at the same time_! The sound he makes is one he doesn't think he has ever made before, and the other two seem as overwhelmed as he is. They move carefully, not quite sure of the limits of this position, but then it is too much and their movements grow wilder, less restrained.

"Gwen!" Arthur cries. "Merlin!" and he has lost all rhythm, thrusting at random the last few times before he throws his arms out like a crucified god and comes, Merlin and Gwen following him. Merlin thrusts slowly for a few more times after he has finished, enjoying Gwen's gasping sobs, but when she makes the noise that means 'too much' he finally stills and slumps over them both, trying not to rest his full weight on them.

A minute later he pulls out and rolls to the side, and Gwen follows, so that all three of them lie panting and exhausted side by side.

"We are SO doing that again," Merlin says, and the other two nod in agreement before drifting off in the warmth of the afternoon sun.

* * *

It's been a golden season, and that means that it is an even worse shock when Arthur suddenly goes cold in bed.

"It's not good for the baby," he tells Gwen. She laughs, but he is serious. They have had a state visit from Cendred's heir, also - somewhat confusingly - named Cendred, and somewhere in amongst all the masculine hunting and fighting Cendred the Younger has convinced Arthur that he mustn't force his attentions on his wife while she is expecting.

"Of course Cendred's wife tells him that," Gwen tells Merlin with considerable annoyance. "If I were his wife I'd do the same."

Merlin snorts, amused. Cendred has very little time for women, and even less for the peasantry. Arthur is not so easily convinced.

"It can deform the child, or bring on early birth," he tells them. He tries forbidding them to have sex too, but Gwen gives him an incredulous look and totally ignores the instruction.

In public they have always been discreet. Officially, Merlin has a chamber off their anteroom, which is where he keeps his formal clothes and his books. His breeches and shirts, however, hang next to Arthur's in Arthur's closet, enabling him to cross the anteroom respectably dressed in the face of servants and attendant noblemen alike.

In private, they have always been unashamedly affectionate. Gwen likes to touch, and her open loving ways set the tone of their marriage from the beginning, crossing the divide when her new husband was wary of his dignity and their lover was afraid to presume. That Arthur won't touch her now, hurts.

"Do you think... that maybe it's an excuse?" she says to Merlin one day, sitting quietly sewing small clothes for the baby who is only a matter of weeks from being born.

Merlin is working on the accounts, but he looks up and frowns at her words. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm HUGE!" she blurts out.

Merlin sets down his quill and crosses over to kneel before her. "You're beautiful, Gwen." He places a hand on her belly, which is, no denying it, very large. They're in the anteroom where anyone could come in, so he takes her hand and helps her to her feet before leading her into her bedroom, locking the door behind them.

"You don't have to," she mutters and he grins at her, piling the pillows to support her as he helps her lie down.

"Don't be ridiculous." His tone is affectionate, his gaze warm and sexy as he pushes her skirts up and rests a loving cheek on her belly. "This is the future Prince or Princess of Camelot. Hello gorgeous," he adds, planting a quick kiss where a questing hand or foot has pushed out, bumping his cheek.

Gwen laughs quietly as Merlin drops his breeches and slides across the bed. He seats himself with his legs around her hips, slipping his cock inside her. Their angle of movement is limited, but satisfying, and he braces himself with his hands on her hips.

"It won't be long before I'm out of here," he reminds her with a slow rolling thrust which makes her sigh in satisfaction. "Once baby arrives it's back to normal."

"He'll have his heir," she protests, letting her head drop back onto the pillows.

"Maybe. Or maybe it will be a princess," he says. "But you probably need a second boy anyway."

She doesn't argue. There will be time to discuss it later.

They make love slowly, enjoying the moment. When they hear Arthur calling Merlin from the anteroom Gwen grimaces, knowing that if he comes in now there will be another argument.

"Don't fret about it," Merlin soothes her, thrusting again before he calls out to Arthur, "I'm here!"

Arthur tries the door and finds it locked, and by the time he comes through from his own room he has worked up a head of steam, but Merlin smiles lazily at Gwen and she finds it easy to follow his lead, letting Arthur's ire roll over her as she meets Merlin's thrusts with matching thrusts of her hips.

"Come on, beautiful," Merlin coaxes her, knowing that the tide is rising in her. Arthur has stopped talking and is watching them, his face unreadable. As she whimpers and reaches for something to hold he is suddenly by her side, taking her hands. She clings to him as she falls over the edge, feeling Merlin speed up and seek his own pleasure at last.

"It's for your own good," Arthur says miserably, holding her, his hands gentle and longing.

"It's not!" Gwen insists. "Love you, want you."

Merlin has fallen backwards, their hips still pressed against each other even now that his cock is soft and limp at his groin.

"Don't be a prat, Arthur," he advises, and Arthur lets out a groan of unwilling acquiescence.

"Fine," he says. "FINE!"

"Nothing will happen," Gwen assures him. "The baby is perfectly healthy." She wishes she were mobile enough to roll over and pounce on Arthur, but Merlin is there to do it for her, to unlace Arthur's breeches and take him in his mouth.

"Now get in there and fuck your wife. She thinks you don't want her because she's with child," he orders when Arthur is gasping and whimpering for more.

Arthur's jaw drops as he moves across to slide inside her, where Merlin had been such a short time before. "Gwen, no! Of course I want you!" he says, and then at last he is moving inside her, loving her again, and Merlin is beside her, warm and loving too.

This is how it should be. Gwen smiles. This is how it should always be.


End file.
